Clear Lake Farmer Pleads Guilty To Loan Fraud
Two Loans Obtained Based On Fake Grain Receipts
Contact: Peter Deegan
A man who made false statements to obtain loans from a bank pled guilty yesterday in federal court in Cedar Rapids.
Michael Dean Olk, age 56, from Clear Lake, Iowa, was convicted of using fraudulent grain receipts as collateral for two bank loans.
At the plea hearing, Olk admitted he pledged grain he did not own in order to obtain two bank loans. Olk used fraudulent warehouse receipts from his grain elevator company to deceive the bank. The warehouse receipts falsely represented Olk delivered grain to his elevator on January 14, 2003 and February 10, 2003. In fact, defendant had not made these grain deliveries, and did not own the grain shown on the receipts.
Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Olk remains free on bond previously set pending sentencing.
Olk faces a sentence of not more than 30 years’ imprisonment without the possibility of parole; a fine equal to the greatest of the following amounts: (1) twice the gross gain to defendant resulting from the offense; (2) twice the gross loss resulting from the offense; or (3) $1 million; a mandatory special assessment of $100; and a term of supervised release of at least three to five years.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sean Berry and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 11-3039.
